Because this section is free of charge, community events are subject to run based on available space. Religion items are published on the Saturday church page. Email events to [email protected].
TODAY, MARCH 16
ADULT ARTS AND CRAFTS: Let creativity shine to create a cute craft or inspiring art piece from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Ruby B. Archie Library auditorium. Ages 18 and up. No fee. Registration is required by calling, 434-799-5195.
FRIDAY, MARCH 17
FAMILY GAME NIGHTS: Relax with family and come out for a fun night of board games, sports and outdoor games at Coates Recreation Center from 5:30 to 7 p.m. No fee. Registration required by calling, 434-799-5150. Sponsored by Parks and Recreation.
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SATURDAY, MARCH 18
CARS & COFFEE: Old Dominion Classic Sports Car Club will hold Cars & Coffee from 9 to 11 a.m. at Crema & Vine, 1009 Main St. For more information, call 434-548-9862.
JAPANESE CULTURAL EVENT: George Washington High School Japanese class and club will host the third annual Japan Day free event in the GW auditorium from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will be Kendo, Taiko Drumming, a tea ceremony, prizes and more. Register online at https://tinyurl.com/yse2tj2z.
CLASSIC MOVIE CLUB: Enjoy a classic movie with discussion following at the Ruby B. Archie Library auditorium from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. “The Adventure of Robin Hood” (1938) for ages 18 and up. Registration required by calling, 434-799-5195. No fee.
ARCHERY 101 WORKSHOP: Learn the basic safety, anchor points, draw and release, care of equipment and essential safety skills with a USA Archery certified instructor for ages 5 to 17 at Coates Recreation Center from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Cost is $12. Registration required by calling, 434-799-5150.
HOMESTEADING 101: Learn from local homesteaders Ben and Amber Martin at Glenwood Community Center from 10 a.m. to noon. No fee. For ages 5 and up; registration is required a week prior.
MONDAY, MARCH 20
PRESSURE CANNER LID TESTING: Virginia Cooperative Extensive Office, 19783 U.S. 29 South, Suite C, Chatham, will check pressure cooker lid and gauge used for canning at no cost from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For information, call 434-432-7770.
TUESDAY, MARCH 21
THE WRITE…
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GLENS FALLS — The disc golf course at Crandall Park has been used substantially in the past year, according to the 2022 annual report issued by Jaimen Hume.
Hume is a professional disc golfer who designed the course with Jon Hotmer in November 2020. Hume is also a member of the disc golf course subcommittee and supplied the statistics of course usage to the Crandall Park Beautification Committee via email.
The popularity of the course has been measured by the smartphone app Udisc. It helps disc golfers keep track of scorekeeping, statistics and allows for discovery of new courses.App developers told Hume that the rounds played that are logged using the app accounted for about 20% of rounds, or plays, on the course.
“Crandall Park finished out the year at 5,605 plays, up from 4,063 last year, on Udisc. The app developers guess that 20% of players use the app, so that number is theoretically at 28,025 plays! That’s an astounding number and a ton of usage of the park,” Hume said in an email.
Firefighters by nature of the job are giving to their communities.
Between the long shifts, time away from family and putting out fires, firefighters give of themselves to the communities they serve.
For Brian Rummelhart, a recently retired firefighter, service through his job was not enough.
Outside of his profession, over the past 31 years Rummelhart has committed to serving the Kenosha community by assisting the Kenosha Firefighter CARE group, mentoring students at Hillcrest School, delivering Meals on Wheels, competing in charity runs and even appearing as Spiderman for birthday parties and other events free of charge.
Those efforts and others have earned Rummelhart the title of 2022 Kenosha News Person of the Year.
“It just feels good to help people,” Rummelhart said. “People help us (firefighters) all the time, so it’s good to be able to pay that back.”
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Those who know him have described him as “lighthearted” and “the first to lend a helping hand.”
“He always takes things in stride,” said Harry Tolbert, a firefighter who used to work with Rummelhart. “I always feel like he’s one of those unsung hero guys. He doesn’t look for anyone to pat him on the back for (what he does) or to be given any public accolades for it. He just always does it under the radar with a smile on his face, and never begrudgingly.”
Others admired him for his leadership and ability to remain calm in stressful situations.
“His optimism made the job fun and positive,” said Steve Allemand, a firefighter who worked with Rummelhart. “He made bad situations manageable and gave solutions to problems we faced. He was always able to keep a level head.”
Becoming a firefighter
Born in Iowa City, Iowa, Rummelhart has spent most of his life in Kenosha. His family moved to the area when he was in first grade, and he attended school in the area. Upon graduating from Bradford High School, Rummelhart started pursuing a career as a firefighter after considering and exploring the idea of the job in high school.
“It wasn’t a lifelong dream or anything necessarily,” he said. “But it seemed to fit. When I looked into it more, it seemed to fit.”
Raisa Boben moved to the United States from India to pursue a career as an engineer. She landed in North Carolina in 2016 when she started her master’s degree in mechanical engineering at North Carolina State University.
After graduating, Boben, 31, moved to Hickory to become a development engineer for Corning in 2018.
In her spare time, she enjoys drawing cartoons, which she shares on Instagram, and volunteering at the Catawba Science Center and Hickory Museum of Art. Through her job at Corning, Boben said she gets to teach teens about engineering and robotics. She also serves as a judge at robotics competitions.
Boben said she grew up in Delhi, the capital of India, which is located in the north. Boben’s family is originally from Kerala, which is in the southern part of India. Delhi and Kerala are more than 1,600 miles apart. She said there are many different languages spoken in India depending on the region. Her family’s native tongue is Malayalam. Boben said she can understand Malayalam but is not fluent.
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“I feel like because I grew up in the north, I think in Hindi,” Boben said. “I can understand Malayalam and I can talk in it, but I’m not that good.”
Boben said her first language is Hindi, since she grew up in Delhi, and her second…
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John Miles said the main goal for his troop of Boy Scouts is to have as many new experiences as possible.
He said the group focuses on exploring new places more than trying to advance in rank.
Miles, 54, joined the Boy Scouts of America when he was 8. Miles worked his way up to Eagle Scout by the time he was 18. To earn his Eagle Scout rank, Miles helped start the Glenn Hilton Trail at Glenn C. Hilton Jr. Memorial Park in 1986, he said.
After becoming an Eagle Scout, Miles was a Boy Scout summer camp counselor for 10 years. He was a scoutmaster for two years when he was around 24 years old, he said.
In 2014, Miles’ oldest son, Davis, now 23, joined the Boy Scouts. Miles started helping with the Cub Scout pack that Davis was in. When Miles’ youngest son, Jackson, 17, joined the Boy Scouts, Miles became a den leader for Jackson’s Cub Scout pack, he said.
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Earlier this year, the Dalton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) installed two practice disc golf baskets outside its visitor information center that is in the old freight depot at 305 S. Depot St., just off Morris Street.
“We are trying to share with our visitors things made in Dalton and Georgia grown,” said Margaret Thigpen, director of tourism for Dalton and Whitfield County, who directs the CVB and the Dalton Convention Center.
Prodigy Disc, a Whitfield County-based manufacturer of disc golf equipment, donated one of the baskets and sold the CVB the other.
“They (the practice baskets) are getting a lot of use,” said Thigpen. “They are not only being used by our visitors, but by our locals, especially those living in the Belk building.”
“We took that idea and expanded it,” Thigpen said. “We thought it would be great to have something throughout downtown. We got with the DDDA (Downtown Dalton Development Authority), Prodigy, the Dalton Parks and Recreation Department and Whitfield County. Voila, we now have a par 2 disc golf course downtown.”
The course, which is open for play, has eight baskets in four locations: the Burr Performing Arts Park, Dalton Green, the county-owned greenspace across from the courthouse and the freight depot. Discs will be for sale at the freight depot.
“To our knowledge, this is the only permanent downtown disc golf course in the nation,” said DDDA Executive Director Candace Eaton.
“I think it’s a huge deal because it will bring a different market downtown,” Eaton said in a press release from the city. “As they walk the course they’ll see local businesses downtown or stop and eat lunch or dinner, or maybe grab a beer or shop.”
“From a tourism standpoint, it absolutely opens our downtown for visitors to have something more to do, to keep them there a little longer,” Thigpen said in the press release. “For all of our tournaments and events coming into our community, just to have something else for the visitors to do when they’re waiting for their next game or their next event, that’s a great addition.”
The Greater Dalton area has several full-sized disc golf courses.
The Whitfield County Parks and Recreation Department’s Westside Park Disc Golf Course was voted one of the top four courses in the United States in 2020 by the readers of Connect…
If you thought the recreational facilities and events on Fort Rucker were just for the military and their families, you would be wrong. In fact, the mission of Morale, Welfare, and Recreation is to serve soldiers, their families, veterans, and civilians.
Chris Mendez, from the MWR office at Fort Rucker, recently spoke to the Enterprise Lions Club about the facilities, programs, and events that are open to military families and also to the public.
Fort Rucker encompasses 62,000 acres, including lands for hunting, a 640-acre Lake Tholocco for swimming, boating, and fishing, an equestrian stable, a golf course, swimming pools, and camping sites, among other activities and facilities.
The facilities, programs, and events offer something for almost everyone, and that’s a good thing since Fort Rucker serves a population of 156,000. Of that number, 5,000 are active-duty soldiers assigned to Fort Rucker. Add another 5,300 for family members of those soldiers, and 2,000 for flight students. In addition, approximately 110,000 retirees and their families avail themselves of the services offered on post. Finally, 25,000 veterans in the area bring the final count to 156,000. And those numbers do not include the civilians who work and play on Fort Rucker.
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Lake Tholocco is open to both military and civilians. Visitors can take advantage of the swimming, boating, and fishing opportunities, and 52 campsites. There are 23 furnished cabins on the lake, and while only active-duty military, veterans, and retirees can rent the cabins, they can sponsor a civilian family who might want to use one of the cabins. The new Lake Lodge will be opening soon and all rooms will face the lake. The lodge will also feature banquet facilities for weddings, meetings, reunions, etc. There will also be an outdoor gazebo for outdoor events.
The 27-hole Silver Wings Golf Course is open to the public year-round and, in addition to the golf course and a driving range, offers dining opportunities at the Divots Restaurant and Grille. Brunch is served on Sundays. Disc Golf is another popular recreational activity that visitors to Fort Rucker can enjoy.
With five public courses, Bedford County is no stranger to disc golf.
Now, capitalizing on the sport’s growing popularity and local tourism campaign, “Destination Bedford Disc Golf,” a $19,500 grant from the Virginia Tourism Corporation to support marketing efforts will help promote the county as a disc golf destination.
“Disc golf in general, in this area, especially Bedford County, has skyrocketed,” said Kenny Palmer, parks and recreation operations coordinator for Bedford County. “Disc golf is, at the moment, by far the most participated-in amenity at our parks. That includes the trail systems, too. Our trails get used quite a bit, but disc golf definitely outnumbers trail users.”
Over the past several years, Bedford County has continually worked to maintain, improve, or expand disc golf courses as a driving tourism attraction, drawing visitors and professional or hobby disc golf players from far and wide. Bedford’s five courses are managed by the county’s parks and recreation department.
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“For this particular application, I chose Destination Bedford Disc Golf as the marketing program because people are coming from across the country to play the courses here,” said Nicole Johnson, director of tourism in Bedford County, via email. “The tourism department started promoting disc golf in 2019 with the roll-out of the Destination Bedford branding and marketing campaign. Now I want to take it a step further. I not only want to generate more awareness of the courses here, but also encourage those who come for disc golf to stay longer and discover other activities and attractions.”
When applying for a Virginia tourism grant, Johnson said, the applicant must have a specific project in mind. The grant money will fund email, print, digital, social media, broadcast television and radio advertising for Destination Bedford Disc Golf.
Part of the draw of disc golf is that it is an outdoor activity, accessible to most everyone, and an activity not negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Palmer said.
Whereas many venues and events were shut down or limited, particularly indoor ones, disc golf in the open air lent itself perfectly as something to…
The Oakdale Street entrance to the Frank Wilson Park has been improved, thanks to the Dan River Basin Association (DRBA).
Unless someone told you, or you accidentally stumbled upon it, you likely didn’t know that there is a stairway off of Oakdale Street across from the Virginia Museum of Natural History that leads to the J. Frank Wilson Memorial Park.
Now there is no mistaking that the park that is entered at East Church Street Ext. by motor vehicle can be accessed by walkers easily from Oakdale Street.
Improvements at Oakdale include signage, flower planters and a litter cleanup by volunteers, funded by a special interest grant through the Community Foundation Serving Western Virginia.
“The goal of the grant was to connect the museum staff and visitors to the park,” said Krista Hodges, education manager of the DRBA in a release. “Most people didn’t even know the park was there, but now there is signage that is clearly visible from the museum.”
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In early July, about 40 kids in the Martinsville-Henry County After 3 summer camp volunteered a few hours to clean up litter along the bank at Oakdale and along the trail that leads into the park, the release said.
The improved entrance is across the street from a storm drain that was painted this past spring by middle school student Irene Jewell of North Carolina, who designed a brook trout theme with the quote, “Think of the Trout, Before You Dump It Out,” said the release.
The Rotary Club of Martinsville helped to fund the painting of three drains throughout uptown Martinsville and also provided a grant to the DRBA for work on the Frank Wilson Park entrance, the release said.
“This park is a true gem in the city of Martinsville,” DRBA’s Executive Director Tiffany Haworth said in the release. “It is a greenspace surrounded by a school, the Virginia Museum of Natural History and residential area. It is a key site for community meetings and outdoor learning and recreation. By bringing more visibility, our hope is that the surrounding community will feel safe and welcome to explore the park.”
In addition to the museum, the park is also across the street from the YMCA and near the Silver Bell Trail. The park, owned by…